This week in small business: Productivity hacks, growth hacks, and much more
All the tips we’ve collected for you this week should have you firing on all cylinders in your personal productivity and career success. Start with getting your office desk in order and then move on to your career.
Leadership, management, and productivity
This infographic by Rose Leadem gives us 12 office desks hacks we can use to improve our productivity. (Gamers will really like #6.)
Former Marine and current online job search expert Susan P. Joyce takes a different approach to SEO: Personal SEO and career success. And if it’s personal success you’re pursuing, here are three ways to attract it, according to Maleeka Hollaway.
Ransomware. It’s a modern-day nightmare. The American Bankers Association has an article and infographic here that gives small businesses five ways to protect themselves.
Godaddy’s Justin Tsai is the guy behind this infographic, “What the mobile technology explosion means for small business websites.”
Adopt the seven financial habits of the most successful small business owners, and you’ll probably do quite well. We can thank Matthew Baker for these insights.
In this edition of her Women in Business Q&A, Laura Emily Dunn profiles Jasmina Aganovic, president of Mother Dirt, a line of innovative biome-friendly personal care products.
They test new drugs in the lab. A good place to test many business ideas is the flea market. Here are Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead’s tips on using a flea market as a startup incubator.
Marketing and sales
Matei Gavril gives us five marketing tools to boost ecommerce; if you aren’t familiar with all of these – and you sell online – you need to be.
I love articles that come with real-life examples and that’s what Ross Andrew Simons does in his Hubspot article, “4 Examples of Fantastic Inbound Marketing Web Design.”
Blake Morgan asks a very interesting question in her Forbes article: What would happen if marketing was eliminated at your company?
Can you spare 15 minutes a day? If so, Brian Honigman says you have enough time to do marketing.
Entrepreneurship, startups, and innovation
Writing for Entrepreneur, Amanda Lewan profiles Cindy Pasky and how she started her own staffing company, which now grosses more than $300 million a year.
I love this profile by Kathleen Elkins: “94-year-old entrepreneur shares her best advice for young people.”
If you’re ready for a gut check, you need to see this piece by Rodney Williams where he asks, “So, you want to be an entrepreneur?”
Get started on the right foot: Kevin Indig offers sound advice on how startups should do SEO.
Is Instagram part of your marketing strategy? If it’s not, Jonathan Long says you need to get on the stick ASAP.
Time to give you startup’s PR a kick in the pants? Wendy Marx has some growth hacking strategies for you.
The winners today are often those who automate best. That’s why Jerry Kelly’s article on features to look for in marketing software is very timely.
If you think entrepreneurship is a shortcut to riches, think again, says Jayson Demers.
Politics, government, and the economy
Positive economic sentiment seems to be running high in recent months and weeks. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says that deregulation should help deliver robust growth.